When I consider how much time is wasted in our culture, when I think of all the time I myself have wasted, I realize the importance of emphasizing the point that time is really a carrier and container of our spiritual aspirations — all our dreams. desires, and goals. We need constantly and urgently to remind ourselves of time's preciousness. Of course, doing so runs counter to the culture we are steeped in, a society in love with speed, excitement, the new, the different, the fashionable. To understand the nature and value of time, to grasp and live in its precious atmosphere is actually a contemplative quality.
— Wayne Teasdale, A Monk in the World